Recently curious people with admirable stability
are persistently interested in the same question: “What are the
consequences of Russian aggression against Ukraine?” Markers of
this questions especially within the frames of Russian-Ukrainian
military and technical cooperation become visible for unaided eye: at
the beginning – sanctions and total import phase-out, after that –
missiles cannot be launched, vessels cannot navigate, aircrafts
cannot fly. It is also applied to Russian-Ukrainian NATO programs,
with the help of which the budgets of both countries receive
significant funds.
In accordance with aforesaid during a whole year
the attention of European Union is drawn to “SALIS”
NATO program (Strategic
Airlift Interim Solutions, temporary
solution for strategic air transportation of cargoes).
A bit of history.
This project is implemented for already more than ten years via
“Ruslan SALIS GmbH”
German company which was established by NATO initiative in 2004 by
“VOLGA-DNEPR”
Russian commercial air company and by “Antonov
Airlines”, a business unit of ANTONOV
State Company. Operation of the company is regulated by the Contract
signed in December 2005, the validity period of which is periodically
extended for determined period.
Purpose of the project:
providing of air transportation services for delivery of heavy,
oversize and hazardous cargoes for the interests of NATO
member-countries and European Union countries.
As of 2016 services of Ruslan
SALIS GmbH were provided to 13
countries: 11 NATO member-countries (Belgium, Hungary, Germany,
Greece, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, France, Czech
Republic) plus Sweden and Finland. The Great Britain has officially
left the project in January 2015.
So where is the problem? And a problem appeared by
the reason that the Contract has expired on December 31, 2016, and it
required extension for 2017-2019, but, due to Russian aggression
against Ukraine and international anti-Russian sanctions, SALIS
international project faced with conflicting issues that require
immediate solving, such as: how to continue the cooperation between
Ukraine and Russia and whether such cooperation is still possible? Is
it possible for Ukraine to support this project independently without
Russia, and vice versa?
Such questions appeared after actions of Ukrainian
party which announced that starting from January 1, 2017, it intends
to work under SALIS program independently, besides Ruslan SALIS GmbH,
and for this purpose on July 12, 2016, it has registered “Antonov
SALIS GmbH” company under control of
Antonov Airlines.
Appearance of two independent players (“Ruslan
SALIS GmbH” and “Antonov
SALIS GmbH”) within the frames of
single SALIS project put some European countries into stupor.
However, everything looks logic: aggression, annexation, reaction and
sanctions, but never the less, tender results were postponed and
canceled for several times.
Such intrigue wasn’t long. According to results
of consultations between SALIS program member-countries held in
October 2016, both offers provided by “Antonov SALIS GmbH” and
“Ruslan SALIS GmbH” were accepted! And Bundeswehr, due to its
interest in this project (2/3 of its needs in air transportation
using SALIS project) was assigned to distribute a volume of flight
hours under this program in the ratio of 60% for Russia and 40% for
Ukraine, according to quantity of available An-124-100 aircrafts (10
aircrafts belong to VOLGA-DNEPR, and 7
– to Antonov Airlines).
The efficiency of such mechanism will be proven
only by practice and by availability of aircrafts that are allowed
for operation, quantity of which for Ukrainian party wasn’t
calculated correctly. Let us add
the following:
- An-225 “MRIYA” (ANTONOV State Company is
able to provide An-225 aircraft with the price of services of
“Ruslan” aircraft);
- An-124-100 aircraft that belong to Maximus Air
Cargo company (UAE), which has a valid contract with ANTONOV State
Company for providing this aircraft in case of necessity;
- An-124-100 aircraft that is located in Kiev
starting from 2010 and that belongs to Libyan party (can be put out
to tender by state enforcement service).
On the assumption of the aforesaid and with some
level of tolerance we may say that quantity of aircrafts available
with “Ruslan SALIS GmbH” and “Antonov SALIS GmbH” is
approximately the same, but due to general carrying capacity the
Ukrainian company is in front, if we pay attention to carrying
capacity of single MRIYA aircraft and four modernized An-124 (with
carrying capacity up to 150 tons), we will have additional 220 tons
of cargo, and this is mostly two “Ruslan” aircrafts… So how was
it calculated?
What else can be offered by ANTONOV State
Company as a founder of “Antonov SALIS GmbH”?
ANTONOV State Company is the designer of An-124
“Ruslan” aircraft and the manufacturer of a list of its main
components.
ANTONOV State Company is the owner of complete
package of certified documentation, including design documentation,
so it is the only company with exclusive legal right for extension of
aircraft’s service life as a developer.
The above-mentioned statement is also connected to
engines for this aerial vehicle and the exclusive right for extension
of engine’s service life belongs to Zaporizhzhya Machine-Building
Design Bureau PROGRESS State Enterprise named after Academician
A.G.IVCHENKO, Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine.
ANTONOV State Company, as a designer of An-124
“Ruslan” aircraft, has the exclusive right to sell all
modifications of this aircraft, to introduce changes into design
documentation regarding equipment composition, upgrades etc., in
accordance with ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization)
requirements.
ANTONOV State Company, as a designer of aircrafts,
has the right to extend service life according to “technical
condition” even of spare parts manufactured in Russian Federation.
Nowadays ANTONOV State Company implements active
policy of imports phase-out, and is planning to reach “full-cycle”
in 2018.
What is VOLGA-DNEPR Air Company (as a founder
of “Ruslan SALIS GmbH”) able to put against the aforesaid?
In 1994 VOLGA-DNEPR Air Company was included into
a register of UN official freight forwarders and in
2007 it was canceled from UN official freight forwarders register by
the reason of “bribes in exchange for
contracts”, and the main people
involved in this crime were Russian UN employees – Mr. Aleksandr
Yakovlev and Mr. Vladimir Kuznetsov. The first one was an employee of
UN Procurement Service, the second – head of advisory committee for
administrative and budgetary issues in UN General Assembly. Actually
both of them took decisions regarding handing-over of UN contracts to
the others, and what was the reason of such decisions. In 2005, the
independent committee, headed by Mr. Paul Walker, former head of US
Federal Reserve System, has conducted an investigation of abuse
within the frames of Oil-for-Food Program, the biggest financial UN
project ever (according to the information from several sources, its
budget reached up to 64 billion US dollars). The committee found the
evidence of fact that Mr. Yakovlev have been taken bribes from the
companies for further awarding of UN contracts, and later on he has
transferred 1.3 million US dollars to bank account of the company
registered in offshore zone of Antigua and Barbuda, Caribbean
islands. During the same year, in federal district court of New York,
Mr. Yakovlev has admitted his guilt in demanding of bribes and
laundering of money. He was arrested, but released on bail. He gave
evidence against Mr. Vladimir Kuznetsov. They are threatened with
imprisonment for twenty years.
VOLGA-DNEPR Air Company actively cooperates with
Joint Stock Company ROSOBORONEXPORT which falls under limiting
sanctions from USA and other international organizations, and which
has supplied Russian weapons to Sudan. Because of such fact, in
accordance with Para 2 of Resolution 2091 (2013), the UN Security
Council expressed its concern about the fact that direct or mediate
supply, sale or handover to Sudan of technical support, weapon
systems and corresponding material resources may be used by the
Government of Sudan for the purpose of making maintenance of aerial
vehicles that are used in disregard of Resolutions 1556 (2205) and
1591 (2005).
Thus, in April 2017 aircrafts of VOLGA-DNEPR Air
Company were used for transportation from Russia to Sudan of two
Mi-24P helicopters and six Mi-8MT helicopters, together with its
standard weaponry. In both cases Joint Stock Company ROSOBORONEXPORT
was acting as a forwarder of helicopters, and “Military Industry
Corporation” Sudan company (which falls under limiting sanctions
from USA) was acting as a cargo recipient.
In the context of this fact, we should mention
that cooperation of VOLGA-DNEPR Air Company with ROSOBORONEXPORT JSC
has a stiff character, and includes several dozens of charter flights
in 2017.
In addition due to annexation of Crimea and
initiation by Russia of war in eastern part of Ukraine, the US
Department of Defense has stopped unilaterally the cooperation with
VOLGA-DNEPR Air Company under “CRAFТ Air
Mobility Command” program.
But through it all, VOLGA-DNEPR
Air Company successfully uses BOEING aircrafts (manufactured in the
USA) for making delivery to commercial organizations of weapons and
military equipment that are prohibited by international conventions.
In particular, during the first half of 2017 using
BOEING-747 aircrafts, VOLGA-DNEPR Air Company has performed delivery
from Serbia to Al-Kharj city of 39 tons of smoke warheads with white
phosphorous and around 30 tons of ammunitions for the needs of the
Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
VOLGA-DNEPR Air Company will hardly solve a
problem of getting right of overflight using air space of Ukraine,
Georgia and Turkey, and this fact doesn’t guarantee a complete
operating readiness for cargo transportation at NATO south-east wing.
However, at first sight it may appear that Russia
is able to solve all technical issues with “Ruslan” aircraft by
itself, because “Moscow is above the law”, but sanctions and
imports phase-out are making its task: missiles cannot be launched,
aircrafts cannot fly, and it’s all about national products, so what
about the foreign one?
So who is the winner and what is the prize?
Detached view on the Parties
In conditions of Russian aggression against
Ukraine, NATO has declared about termination of cooperation with
Russian Federation under all military programs.
According to SALIS contractual conditions, NATO at
any moment is empowered to terminate the contract with the executor
unilaterally at any time and without explaining any reasons.
NATO is carefully weighting all political risks,
and that’s why at the present moment within the frames of SALIS
project Russian air companies are not able to make any flights into
Georgia, Turkey and Ukraine. And these directions are very important
for SALIS. For example, during 2006-2015 the following flights were
executed:
- To/from Georgia by NATO request: 6 flights and
484 technical landings;
- To/from Turkey: 146 flights and 152 technical
landings
In addition, facilitators of the biggest
international airshow FARNBOROUGH (the Great Britain) have prohibited
to Russian Federation to exhibit military-purpose products during
their exhibition in 2018.
Conclusions
Russia, represented by VOLGA-DNEPR Air Company,
using its own forces and without ANTONOV State Company, legally and
technically is not able to cooperate with NATO within the frames of
SALIS project regarding operation of An-124 “Ruslan” aircrafts.
In its turn, Ukraine,
represented by ANTONOV State Company, legally and technically is able
to support SALIS project independently.
For the purpose to implement the aforesaid the
official Kiev within the frames of NATO-Ukraine cooperation must:
- At the first stage, to defend its interests
regarding correct and differentiated distribution of flight hours
volume under this program, in the ratio of at least 50% by 50% or
even more;
- At the second stage, to introduce an amendment
to SALIS project regarding “operation of An-124 “Ruslan”
aircrafts without Russian Federation”, against the guarantee of
independent implementation of SALIS contract in full volume, with
higher quality and with more attractive prices for SALIS.
The road will be handled by the walker.
